A Happy Stage

I have been slacking in my journaling lately since Let Why Lead takes a lot of my brain power and time, but there are just too many precious moments I want to record, so let me try to play catch up. 

First of all, these two just light up my heart! Both of their expressions in this little series just cracked me up. I am continually thanking the Lord that my children love each other so much. 

We got a little heatwave conference weekend (mid-80s), so we headed to the pool. It was unfortunately no longer heated (someone should talk to the managers about that!), but the boys still dared the 68-degree water. They take after their great grandpa Wood! Quinn and I stuck to the grass but were happy for another occasion to wear that cute yellow suit. :)

 

She was a BIG fan of the grass and leaves. Quinn is in the 97th percentile for height (90th for weight), and this picture shows off her length well. 

Chase sometimes falls asleep during the boys' quiet time (basically ipad time), but we usually do our best to keep him awake because he's a bear after a nap and because he'll stay up till all hours playing blocks in his room if naps during the day. But who could resist those buns!?

I think Trenton took this shot. Love my goofballs. 

Trenton's school sends home a new book every day, which we read and send back the next morning in his bookbag. I LOVE the system because we always have something new to read, and most of the books have moral. (As opposed to the construction books the boys have been picking out from the library for YEARS!) 

T is doing great in school. He tells me far and away more about kindergarten than he did about preschool. It helps that he's older and that I've had more practice asking the right questions. (Who did you sit by at snack time? What's your job this week? What'd you do in PE?) 

He went from knowing all the kids in his life (most of the preschool kids were also from church) to not knowing a single kid in his school. It's been hard for my mother heart to watch him try to integrate himself, but I think he's getting there! 

So far, he's already told us that he likes the "cool kids," which he apparently determines largely by what they're wearing. (Although I think it's subconsciously more than that, because he seems to gravitate to the boys who are tall and seem more like leaders in the class.) He also told me the other day, "I have a girlfriend," which made my heart skip a beat until he described the relationship as a girl he ran around with briefly in PE. :) 

He always has a ton of spastic energy right after he gets out. After he's buckled himself into the minivan, he starts making these spastic loud sounds in Quinn's direction. I think he's just got to let off some steam after trying so hard all day to be on task. :) 

Also, I'm proud of myself for making new mom friends! They're all older than me, and most have (expensive) homes nearby. But they've been welcoming, and I'm grateful. 

You likely saw that the Deseret News picked up one of my blog posts! From my initial post, it was shared/liked on facebook about 650 times, which is how a DN editor saw it, and then it was shared another 850 times from the Deseret News. I was overwhelmingly touched by everyone who shared it or left heartfelt comments, etc., during that week. It was NUTS! I feel such a huge sense of honor to be able to uplift women on any scale, and this gave me the chance to reach a lot more people. I would love to keep up the momentum! 

Quinn got up on her hands and knees briefly for the first time this weekend; crawling is in our not-too-distant future! She still has about zero ab strength (who can blame her, with a belly that squeezable?), so no sitting up yet. She has had a series of colds for the last couple of months, which have meant that her sleep isn't as great as it used to be. For the one week where she didn't have a cold, she was only getting up once a night (usually before midnight), so I'm hopeful that once she's all the way over them, she'll improve again. 

The boys and I call her our little goat, because she will put anything in her mouth - particularly fabric or paper, if she can get near it. She has a blue shirt with a couple of long ruffles on it, and any time she works up the coordination, she grabs and ruffle and stuffs it in her mouth. We love our baby goat!